


About friendships and magical lands

by buls



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Confident Katsuki Yuuri, Crack, Crossdressing, Disney World & Disneyland, Fluff, Long-Haired Victor Nikiforov, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-21 22:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13750701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buls/pseuds/buls
Summary: Victor wasn't a Disney fan, but he knew enough to get by. He certainly had the looks and the attitude to play any Prince Charming-type character, right? And as any broke college student would tell you, beggars can't be choosers, so he made up his mind and went to Disneyland, to a Disney face-character casting.As it often goes, things don't go exactly as planned and Victor has to do his best to get the most out of this... unexpected casting outcome.





	About friendships and magical lands

And here was Victor Nikiforov. A reasonably attractive, 20-year-old Russian college student, recently moved to America—and just as broke as his fellow American college students were. He should have taken more seriously all those people on the internet complaining about living off free campus food and drowning in debt. Because while Victor didn’t have student loans (as it was quite difficult to get financial aid when you were an international student and not a US resident), he still had underestimated greatly how much would it cost to do his Bachelor’s in America. Maybe his bank account would be less empty living in some place like Ohio or Wyoming, but he had chosen California and now he was paying the consequences.

The semester was over and his on-campus job wouldn’t start until fall semester, so after a week of enjoying academic freedom, Victor found himself needing a job. The problem? Well, international students couldn’t work freely outside of their universities and, to be honest, Victor didn’t want to risk it by working a job that paid him under the table. You never knew if your school’s International Student Affairs Director would come to get a drink at the bar you were working at and give you a formal warning about illegal activities… Yeah, better not to risk a second notice followed by expulsion.

He could always ask Yakov for help, but Victor knew that would come with another earful about irresponsible teenagers who moved abroad to spend money unnecessarily when there were perfectly good Russian universities near home, and so forth and so on. Suddenly the risk of expulsion sounded more appealing.

“So… Do you like Disney movies?” asked his best friend, Christophe Giacometti, another international student. It was Saturday evening and Victor and Christophe were lazing around Chris’ studio apartment. Luckily for Chris, his parents loved catering to all his whims, so they sent him a nice monthly allowance that kept him far away from any type of campus work, thank you very much.

Victor pondered the question for a moment. They had been talking about summer plans and Victor had been in the middle of complaining about his lack of funds. The change of topics took him aback.

“I guess? Yakov was never big on them since they weren’t publicly shown in the USSR until the last couple of years of the twentieth century, but I have watched a couple and I’m on the internet all the time, so I know the main characters and all that stuff.”

“Well, I heard from one of my friends that Disneyland is casting character actors for the summer. They apparently decided to bring back Jack Sparrow and Tarzan, and they’re also looking for others.”

“Bring back? Why were they gone in the first place?”

Chris smiled slyly at the inquiry and winked at Victor. “That, my friend, is because they were too sexy for the park. Women kept pinching Tarzan’s ass and trying to climb onto his vine,” Victor groaned at the innuendo, “and Jack Sparrow talked too much about rum when the children were near.”

“Are you suggesting I should audition for one of those roles?”

“Maybe not Tarzan or Jack Sparrow, but maybe you could try for any of the Prince Charming types. Think about it, you have the height and the looks. And it sounds more entertaining than an office job.”

“What about my hair? Wouldn’t that get on the way?” mussed Victor, toying with the ends of his long, silver hair. Every so often he’d think of getting a haircut, but he was too attached to his length—it had taken him some time to let it grow to his mid-back and the product investment probably amounted to a quarter of his tuition.

“I don’t think it should matter, my friend working there says most characters wear wigs. C’mon, _mon ami_ , give it a try!”

Sigh. Victor stared at the window before looking back at Chris and answering.   

“Oh, whatever. The worse that could happen would be getting rejected. I think I would make a fine Prince Phillip—that’s the guy from Sleeping Beauty right? I have to figure out how to make it count as an internship experience if I get hired, but I think I can make it fit with my major requirements.”

“That’s the spirit! Honestly, if I hadn’t already booked my flight to go home to Switzerland, I would audition myself. I’d make a dashing Flynn Rider. Or maybe Tarzan, my tan and my ass are certainly good enough… Now, let me ask when the auditions are taking place…”

\---

And we’re back to the beginning: so here Victor was, surrounded by twenty or so other men, sitting on a plastic chair in some decidedly non-magical office in Disneyland. A couple of the men were dressed up as the character they wanted to audition for: he could see two Jack Sparrows, an Aladdin and a very boisterous, very _annoying_ Prince Eric. He looked vaguely familiar and sounded almost American, but not quite—that “about” had some Canadian on it, or so Victor thought—; either way, the man would be better suited to play Gaston. Out of pettiness, Victor hoped he didn’t get the role.

The first round of casting went by fast. Candidates were asked for their basic information and which character they wanted to play, their height was measured and their faces and bodies were carefully evaluated. At the end of the day, Victor was selected to go on to a second round of casting—he would have to come back the next day.

There were less people present for the second round, only eight or nine candidates. To Victor’s dismay, the obnoxious Prince Eric was back, this time dressed in his normal clothes but with the same annoying attitude, calling himself the King of Disney and bragging about his _excellent_ acting skills. The man kept talking for what seemed like hours and Victor was relieved when he finally was called to audition and the room went quiet again.

Whenever a person was called, they’d be directed to another room and then, they would never come back. Wasn’t that slightly worrisome?

After an hour of waiting, it was Victor’s turn. Finally. He was the only candidate left. He walked into the other room and met a panel of four people, two men and two women, who looked at him from head to toe. It was intimidating—the day before he’d only had to deal with one casting member—, but Victor wanted the money and he needed to do his best.

He barely had a change to open his mouth to introduce himself when one of the women started talking.

“Well, Mister… Nikiforov, we thank you for coming here but we regret to tell you that we have already decided to cast all our characters today.”

Victor could only blink in surprise.

“I’m sorry… What?”

This time, one of the men spoke. “Yes, we were casting for three characters this time: Jack Sparrow, Prince Eric and Prince Phillip; and we already made our choice. You were our second choice for Phillip, but that charming Canadian man was very convincing.”

Victor was speechless. They certainly couldn’t mean Prince Eric from the day before? _How_? In his shock, Victor’s desperation was faster than his rational mind and he blurted the first thing that came to his brain:

“What about Tarzan?” When he realized what he said, he winced and blamed his outburst on Chris’ innuendo during their first conversation about the Disney casting.

The same man from before answered his question: “We have decided not to cast another Tarzan, as our previous attempts proved to create… situations not suited for a kid-friendly environment. Also,” he added, before looking him up and down, “I wouldn’t think someone like you, Mr. Nikiforov, would be a very good fit for Tarzan. I don’t mean any offense, but your complexion is closer to a Snow White than that of a man who spends his life under the African sun.”

Victor could feel himself blush. Yeah, he was obviously not Tarzan material. “Anyhow, thank you for your time and consideration. I will leave now.”

As he turned around, ready to go back to Chris’ apartment to eat some comfort food and forget about this miserable experience, he heard a voice calling out to him. It was the other woman present, who hadn’t spoken until that moment.

“Mr. Nikiforov, stop! Could you wait outside for a minute? We might have a proposition for you, after all. Since you seem so willing to work with us.”

“Um, sure? I’ll be sitting outside.” Confused, Victor left the room and went back to his seat, wondering what the casting agent meant by “proposition.” He was the only person who had being sent back through the same door, did that mean something bad?

Twenty minutes later, he found himself in front of the casting panel again. The woman who had made him wait spoke first:

“Are you familiar with Frozen?”

Victor gulped. He knew of Frozen and had heard Let It Go play on the radio and on the internet about a hundred times (like most people) and he was familiar with the plot, although he hadn’t really watched the movie. God, did the casting panel want him to try to be the evil guy? He knew he was too slender and stylish to be the rugged romantic lead, but he could certainly act like a suave backstabbing douchebag if the situation called for it.

“As we said before, we already casted the _male_ face characters…”

 ---

This is how Victor Nikiforov, 20, broke college student, found himself putting on a slightly-padded crystal blue dress and wearing his hair in a side braid. He was officially Queen Elsa of Disneyland.

A week after his original audition—and following a third audition where he had to prove he could move gracefully and look and sound the part of Disney’s most popular princess since Ariel—, Victor signed a very strict contract that established his duties as a summer employee and the new actor for Elsa.

Victor needed to take his new job seriously. And so, outside of the mandatory face character training (learning how to answer to his visitors, learning about the appropriate amount of makeup, learning Elsa’s official signature for autographs, learning, learning, learning), he watched Frozen over a dozen times to get into character and to be able to act like Elsa. If he had to dress as a Disney princess to earn money, he would be _the best_ Disney princess.

Chris had had a laughing fit when Victor told him, and promised to come and visit him as soon as he started working. Victor didn’t find it funny, but at least he knew Chris wouldn’t be able to tell anyone unless he wanted to risk Victor’s job. Disney was very firm when it came to protecting kids’ imaginations—Victor wasn’t supposed to tell anyone that his job was playing a face character. If he ever got asked, he had to say he was _a friend of Elsa_.

How did he end up like this? Oh, right, he needed money. It was just for the summer, he could do this.

\---

The first surprise came during Victor’s first day. All face characters had to get ready in the same room, but there was a hierarchy. Princesses had mirror priority, which meant they would get to use the full-body mirrors. Other characters had to stick with the smaller mirrors and makeup areas.

Ha, take that, obnoxious Canadian who had stolen Prince Phillip from Victor.

“Victor!”

Victor was in the middle of applying lipstick when strong arms hugged his middle. Startled, Victor turned around to look at the person clinging to him, only to discover that it was his friend, classmate and fellow Russian, Mila Babicheva.

Dressed as Anna.

What?

Mila laughed and took the lipstick from Victor’s hand, grabbing his chin and expertly applying it herself.

“So you’re the friend Chris mentioned! I had no idea you were going to the casting, I would have given you some pointers. But look at you, you’re a gorgeous Elsa! It suits you.”

“Mila! I had no idea you worked here!”

“I’ve been working here for a year now, Victor. But you’ve read the contract, right? I’m a friend of Anna.” Mila winked at Victor and played with her pigtails.

“What about your hair?”

“Extensions. I had them matched to my hair color and only wear them when I’m here. So, are you ready for your first day, big sister? Luckily for you, we stay in the same area and I’ll get to guide you while you learn the ropes.”

Victor sighed, although he couldn’t hide his smile at the idea of having Mila as a work partner. “I can’t say I’m ready, but I will just have to go and see. I just hope I make a convincing Elsa and that my voice doesn’t slip too much.”

“Don’t worry, you already look like a perfect Elsa. You’ll be having the longest line by the end of your second week. Now, let’s go, time to work.”

\---

Mila’s prediction became true.

At first, Victor had being slightly insecure and hesitant when playing Elsa—because who wouldn’t have a hard time performing as a crossdressing Disney princess with a full face of makeup in the California summer? He initially dreaded the idea of stumbling upon classmates who could recognize him and make fun of his new job but, after the first two weeks, he had already gotten used to becoming Elsa. After all, Victor had always been a born performer: he started ice skating when he was a kid and he had taken ballet lessons for years until he left Russia. In fact, he still ice skated a couple of hours every week. Maybe that was one of the reasons why he connected with Elsa! Both of them had learned to love the ice.

Word had spread that the park had a new Elsa and that she had a great dynamic with the old Anna, so every day, the number of people lining up to meet Victor and Mila got longer. In a month, Victor had already a clear mental image of the types of people that would approach him: most of his visitors were small kids who stared at him in awe, parents who would strike short conversations to prompt their children to ask them for pictures or autographs, or groups of teenagers and young adults who grew up with Disney and were high on nostalgia and childhood excitement. Once or twice he’d had adults (men and women) flirting with him and trying to slip him their numbers. In one occasion, a drunk person tried to propose a threesome between him, Mila and Victor, but their host—a worker in charge of controlling the lines and who acted as a security guard for the face characters—managed to diffuse the situation before any kids noticed.

The second surprise came on a regular day, when Victor was working the last thirty minutes of his four-hour set. He saw two college students lining up. Both looked Asian and he knew one of them from campus: a brown-skinned boy, one or two years his junior, who was quite popular on social media. His companion was paler, somewhat taller and he wore glasses. He looked significantly less enthusiastic or, at least, not as outgoing.

He saw Mila’s eyes light up in recognition and she mouthed a “Phichit!” under her breath, but since Disney was such a strict company that pretty much had employees under 24/7 surveillance, she didn’t acknowledge the two boys until they came forward.

“Oh, but aren’t these the most beautiful princesses!” Phichit grabbed Mila’s hand and kissed it. “And aren’t you, Anna, by any chance, _a friend_ of my friend Mila Babicheva?”

Mila laughed airily and winked at Phichit. “That name surely rings a bell! I might have met her once, I think. What are you doing here?”

Phichit smiled and threw an arm around the boy that came with him. “You see, my dear friend Yuuri here is a total Frozen fan. I swear, he spent a whole semester singing Let It Go in the shower—in English and Japanese! Naturally, I had to bring him here to make sure he took a photo with Elsa.”

At this, Victor stared at the guy—Yuuri— and found that the boy was already looking his way. Victor smiled encouragingly and Yuuri looked away, flushed.

“Well, that’s not a problem, my dear Yuuri,” said Victor.

Yuuri, huh? That name made him think of his little brother, who didn’t know about Victor’s new job—and he wouldn’t hear about it, _ever_ , because Victor was a big brother and he had an image to uphold. Yuri would definitively find the situation hilarious, and Victor refused to be a source of entertainment for the brat.

“No, no, you don’t have to listen to Phichit!” protested Yuuri. Phichit just stuck his tongue out and kept talking to Mila. Yuuri was so different from his little brother that Victor couldn’t help but find him endearing. He wanted to rile him up more.

“Oh, so you _don’t_ want to take a picture with me?” Victor faced Yuuri with a demure fluttering of his eyelashes and a small pout, channeling Elsa at her most contrite. “I understand, people are always scared of my powers, they never want to stay close to me.”

“W-what?”

“See, even my sister forgets about me.” Now Victor flexed his acting muscles by looking sadly at Mila, who was still talking and laughing with Phichit. “It’s better that way, I only bring coldness and loneliness. A handsome boy like you has a much brighter future ahead.”

Victor knew he was pushing it. He didn’t know Yuuri and although the boy was seemingly nice—and very cute—they had never talked before. He couldn’t be sure that Yuuri wouldn’t be offended by Victor’s flirting. Because that’s what the conversation had become, flirting. Victor wasn’t sure how it ended like that—people usually flirted with Elsa, not the other way around.

Yuuri stared at him. One breath, two breaths… When it seemed like he wasn’t going to answer—to Victor’s disappointment—, Yuuri moved his hand to his pocket and brought up a cellphone. Then, he walked toward Victor until he stood beside him. Victor continued looking at the other boy, waiting for his next move.

“It’d be rude of me to let you think that, your highness. To prove you wrong, would you let me take a selfie of us?”

That… was much better than any other answer Victor had been expecting. “Of course, Yuuri.”

“Can I stand closer to you, then? Let me prove that I’m not scared of the ice.”

And now Victor had been outmaneuvered in his own game. He only had himself to blame, he had been the one to tease Yuuri by acting like a lonely Elsa, and this is what he got as a punishment (or reward?). He could feel himself blushing and he could see Mila and Phichit smirking at them from the corner of his eye.

“S-sure, you can do whatever you want.” God, this was worse than he expected, why was Victor saying things without thinking first? It was just like when he asked for the role of Tarzan. Embarrassing.

Yuuri looked into Victor’s eyes, raised his phone, and then, reddening slightly, threw an arm around Victor’s waist. It wasn’t a strong or intrusive grip, but it surprised Victor, who had to fight to keep his composure and don’t let his smile slip. He really wanted to gasp.

 _Conceal, don’t feel_. He knew he and Elsa had a deeper connection. Victor was now convinced that he was born to play Elsa at a Disney park, because it had let him to interact with the cutest boy ever.

The photo went by too fast. Victor and Yuuri looked at the camera and that was it. No more than 10 seconds. But it had felt like an hour to Victor, who almost whined when Yuuri moved his arm away from Victor’s middle.

“That’s my Yuuri, using all my patented selfie techniques!” said Phichit, hugging his friend and breaking the intimate moment that had just transpired between him and Victor. Mila followed him, grabbing Victor’s hand.

“Why don’t we take a family photo now? It’s not fair if you only pay attention to my beautiful sister, Yuuri!” Mila winked at Yuuri, who didn’t seem to be able to stop blushing.

Victor took control of his racing mind and smiled at Mila and Phichit. “Excellent idea! Let’s all take a picture to celebrate.”

Yuuri sighed and hugged Phichit back. “Why not.” Since his phone was already out, he pointed it at the large group and clicked multiple photos.

“Okay, that was fun, but Yuuri and I need to get going, we still have rides to visit. Nice to meet you in person, Queen Elsa! We’ll see you around.” Phichit smiled at Victor and waved at him while he started walking past them.

“It was nice to meet you, Elsa. You are lovely.” With that, Yuuri left to follow his friend.

Victor, who didn’t get a chance to answer, stared at Yuuri’s retreating figure until he heard Mila laughing.

“Hey Elsa, it’s time to go. Our shift is done.” On the way back to the dressing room, she told Victor all she knew about the two friends.

“That’s Phichit Chulanont, as you may already now. He’s a second year but he’s already very popular among all students for his social media presence. We had some classes together. And that other boy was Yuuri Katsuki, his best friend and roommate. He’s a third year. He appears shy at first, but he’s a pretty cool guy when you get to know him. We’ve met a couple of times before. And Chris knows him too, so you have two friends in common.”

Victor didn’t answer and Mila changed topics.

\---

Back in the dressing room, in the middle of removing their makeup, Victor asked, “Do you think I would make a good Tarzan?”

Because if he had been playing Tarzan today, then Yuuri would have being touching his skin directly when they took a selfie. And Victor would have probably died a month into his job. He could understand now why Disney wouldn’t re-introduce the Tarzan face character. Too risky.

Mila threw her towel in Victor’s face.

\---

Half a month later, Victor couldn’t keep cute Yuuri out of his mind. He didn’t think of him all the time—after all, they had only met once—, but Victor couldn’t help but wish Yuuri would come and visit him on the heavier days of summer, when his four-hour set went by so slowly that it felt like ten hours, the children’s fathers were a little too handsy and the heat would make him want to rip off his costume sleeves. Having a guest as nice as Yuuri would be a small blessing, but considering his luck, the only new visitor they’d get today would be the Olaf fuzzy that occasionally popped up for photoshoots.

It was one of those days when even Mila was acting less cheerful than normal, and she and Victor were trying to relieve stress by quietly gossiping about their most annoying visitors (‘can you believe he kept trying to touch my hair to see if it was real?’ ‘oh God, I can’t believe he dressed up as Kristoff and proposed, this is the _fourth_ time he does that’ ‘I thought adults dressing up as characters was against the rules, how did they let him in?’ ‘yeah, only children under 9 can cosplay. He probably changed in the bathroom. Weirdo’) when a loud voice interrupted their conversation.

“If it isn’t my favorite Russian princesses—I mean, Danish princesses!”

Chris was approaching them with a large grin on his face, wearing a pair of glittering Mickey ears. Of course. Victor rolled his eyes as Chris reached them and went on to kiss them on the cheek and slap their butts.

“Mister, if you’re not careful, our royal helper will think you’re harassing us and he will escort you out of this area,” said Mila, gasping dramatically at her friend’s antics.

Victor looked at their security host, who was observing the scene with a raised eyebrow, ready to act. Victor signaled at him not to worry. “It wouldn’t be the first time, so keep your hands to yourself Giacometti, I don’t want to get scolded by management.”

“Sure, sure, whatever your Majesties say. But I brought a coronation present for you, Queen Elsa.” Chris turned around with a mischievous glint in his eye and waved at someone.

That someone turned out to be no other than Yuuri Katsuki.

Victor had told him about their first meeting and Yuuri’s bold response to Victor’s flirting, and Victor knew Yuuri was a friend of Chris’. However, he wasn’t expecting Chris to try his hand at matchmaking while Victor was on the clock. Damn it, Chris.

But wasn’t this what Victor had been wishing? Maybe he should make the most out of the situation and charm Yuuri into wanting to meet him a third time, this time off-costume.

“Hi! Anna, Elsa. Nice to see you again.” Yuuri waved at them, smiling broadly. This time, he wasn’t wearing glasses.

“Hello, handsome gentleman. What happened to your glasses?” Victor couldn’t help himself, there was something about the other boy that made it impossible for Victor to stop flirting. The question earned a nice blush.

“Splash Mountain happened. Normally I know to take off my glasses before most rides, but Phichit and Chris were being distracting and I forgot, so now they must be somewhere submerged in water.”

“That’s a shame. But at least it lets us all see your face better.” Victor threw caution to the wind and raised his hand to brush Yuuri’s bangs aside. Mila and Chris cleared their throats.

“Phichit wasn’t lying when he said Yuuri had a _thing_ for Frozen, hm.”

“I think we already found Elsa’s love interest for the second movie, don’t you think, big sister?” Mila winked.

Yuuri laughed sheepishly and Victor stuck out his tongue at their friends.

“Oh, be quiet, Anna. Or else I’ll call that Kristoff who proposed to you today.”

Chris threw an arm around Yuuri’s shoulder. “As nice as this visit has been, I think there are more people waiting to meet you, princesses. And we have to go and find Phichit, he was supposed to come here after going to the restroom but…”

“Knowing Phichit, he probably found something to photograph,” Yuuri finished his thought. He dislodged himself from Chris’ grasp and turned to Victor. In what Victor had already categorized as a ‘bold Yuuri moment,’ he grabbed Victor’s hand and kissed the back of it, all while keeping eye contact.

“I hope to see you again soon, my Queen. Bye, Anna!” As soon as he said that, Yuuri was gone. Victor would have to have a serious talk with him next time, he was getting too used to leaving Victor hanging, unable to answer back.

Chris chuckled.

“Someone has a crush! Seriously though, I normally never see Yuuri being so straightforward. You might have fire powers instead of ice ones, Vic-Elsa. Yuuri got so fired up!” He hugged Mila and smiled at Victor before turning around. “I have to catch up to Yuuri before his embarrassment run takes him to the other side of the park. Adieu!”

Victor stood there, lost in his thoughts until Mila’s voice took him out of his reverie.

“C’mon Elsa, we still have two more hours to go, time to get back to Arendelle. You know what they say-”

“Don’t you dare, _Anna_ -”

“ _Let it go_!”

Somedays, having Mila as her fake sister made him wish Yuri was here instead. Or rather, it made him wish Mila was Yuri’s fake sister instead of his. That way, she could tease his little brother and leave Victor alone, daydreaming about Yuuri’s beautiful brown eyes.

Note to self: bring Yuri to America and have him cast as Tinkerbell. Maybe he could also work as an Olaf fuzzy. Hmm, now that was an idea.

\---

The rest of the summer was a blur of Disney characters, parades, getting asked to sing Let It Go (in Victor’s mind, that was the biggest struggle of his time at Disneyland: no matter how feminine he could sound when speaking, there was no way he could reach those notes, and he wasn’t about to try it), bonding with Mila and wishing for Yuuri to visit him.

Sadly, luck was not on his side for that last one. Chris had gone back to Switzerland for a month, too, so the chances of convincing him to bring Yuuri along in another Disneyland trip went down to zero during Victor’s last five or six weeks.

During that time, Victor had started paying more attention to Phichit’s social media, because he realized Yuuri would sometimes appear in the pictures he posted. Occasionally the pictures would be on campus, so Victor’s only hope was to coincidentally run into Yuuri one of these days and ask for his number—he supposed he could ask Chris, but he wanted the moment to be _romantic_ , okay?

And here was Victor, spending his last days of summer skating alone at the local rink. Victor Nikiforov, Russian student living in California and former Disney face character (his managers at Disneyland had liked his work so much that they told him to come back when the semester was over, so at least he knew he could successfully impersonate a Disney princess in case he needed a new Halloween costume), pining over a boy he had met twice while dressed as Elsa from Frozen. At least he wasn’t as broke now as he was at the beginning of summer: working had allowed him to save enough money to finally get his bank account over three-digit amounts. Yakov had been surprised at first and Victor had to eventually explain to him the source of his new income. He had tried to be as vague as he could about his exact role, because he still wasn’t ready for Yuri to know about his… double life.

He wasn’t working at Disney anymore, but it looked like life still had surprises in store for him. Because when Victor came back to the ice after using the restroom and drinking water from the nearest fountain, somebody was already skating. Someone very familiar.

“Yuuri?”

Victor called out to the figure, who stumbled in surprise and came to an abrupt stop. Yuuri turned around, looking for the person who had screamed his name, and his eyes—he wasn’t wearing glasses this time either—narrowed when they caught sight of Victor.

It was probably his hair that had Yuuri uttering a hesitant “Elsa?” which had Victor pouting and skating toward the other boy.

Standing in front of Yuuri, Victor winked and said “Elsa? I’m flattered, surely, but I’m only _a friend of_ Elsa.”

Yuuri blinked, surprised, until he understood what Victor had implied. “Oh, right, that’s true. It’s just, the hair, the ice skating… I’m sure you’d make a beautiful Elsa, though.” It was Yuuri’s turn to smile knowingly at Victor.

“That’s very sweet of you, Yuuri, but I’m afraid we haven’t been introduced formally yet. My name is Victor Nikiforov, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, Victor. I am Yuuri Katsuki, but you already knew that. Your _friend_ Elsa probably saw me once or twice.”

Victor smiled at the boy’s answer. “You know, _I_ spent a month waiting to see you again. I’m glad to meet you here, out of every place! I’ve never seen you skating here.”

Yuuri shrugged. “Usually I spend more time at the dance studio, my dancing is much better than my skating. But it’s been such a hot summer than sometimes I just want to cool off.”

“Oh, so you’re also a dancer? You’re full of surprises, Mr. Katsuki.” Victor couldn’t resist flirting with Yuuri. Hopefully this time he’d get his number before saying goodbye, considering that he was finally in his own skin rather than acting as a female movie character.

Yuuri answered with a soft chuckle. “I am full of surprises? Says the guy who is friends with a Disney princess. I couldn’t stop thinking about you these weeks.”

That statement and Yuuri’s flushed face almost made Victor trip and fall. His heartbeat was going crazy. “R-really?” This was the romantic moment Victor had been waiting for!

“Yes. I… couldn’t stop wondering if your hair was a wig. It looked very realistic.” Looking at Victor’s falling expression, Yuuri laughed, bringing a hand to his own mouth to stifle the giggles.

“Yuuri! That’s not fair. And it’s is a hundred percent natural, if you must know. To repay me for being so rude, I demand to know more about you.” Victor playfully pushed Yuuri’s arm and skated away.

“There’s not much to tell. I’m a junior student from Japan, Phichit is my roommate, and I might be an annual Disneyland pass holder? I didn’t go back to Japan this summer, so that’s why I went to Disneyland those two times.”

Victor slowed down his skating so Yuuri could catch up to him. “Is it true that you sung Frozen songs in the shower for a whole semester?”

“Ugh, please don’t mention that. Phichit can never-”

“-let it go?”

“Not you too, Victor!” Said man laughed at Yuuri’s reaction.

“Maybe I will have to call my friend Elsa, if you really are that big of a fan.” Victor frowned and stopped to think about what he said. Could it be possible that he was making himself jealous? Was he jealous of his crossdressing self? Yuuri was driving him to madness.

The boy reached out to Victor, grabbing one of his hands. Victor’s brain muted. “No, I think I’m fine staying with just Victor. Elsa can stay in Arendelle.” Yuuri smiled warmly at Victor, who smiled tentatively in response and squeezed Yuuri’s hand.

“I do have two questions,” Yuuri carried on talking. “One: how did you manage to work off campus as an international student? And two: can you tell me about the secret life of a Disney character?”

Victor raised an eyebrow at the line of questioning. “Hmm, that’s very valuable information, you know? I can’t go around spilling secrets that easily. Not unless I have a phone number and a coffee date.”

The other boy flushed at the statement, but he held his ground and let go of Victor’s hand. Victor whined, but Yuuri had already gotten off the ice and was standing by the lockers, looking for something inside his backpack.

He immediately came back to the rink, holding his phone in his hand. “Okay, I’ll give you my number, but first, finish practicing your routine for Disney On Ice. Because that’s what you’re doing here, right?”

“ _Yuuri!_ ”

Yuuri blew a kiss in Victor’s direction and Victor’s heart soared. Oh, who would have thought that going to that audition would have led him to meeting the perfect future husband? Maybe Disney was truly the happiest place on Earth, despite all the crazy rules and the strict management, and the crazy visitors, and the obnoxious princes.

He had to remember to give Chris a nice Christmas present. He’d had to ask his coworkers about that Tarzan costume…

But in the meantime, he was happy to have a date with the cutest Disney annual pass holder. Later, he would have time to plan a honeymoon visit to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle—and hope that Canadian Prince Phillip didn’t cross his way.                                   

**Author's Note:**

> The base idea for this work came from [As Dreamers Do](http://archiveofourown.org/works/13618158) by [Yuripaws](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuripaws/pseuds/Yuripaws), because last night I saw their fic and remembered all the information I read long time ago about working as a Disney character.
> 
> The Splash Mountain mention is a small homage to [a penny lost is a penny found](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12502244) by [missmichellebelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmichellebelle/pseuds/missmichellebelle)
> 
> In real life, Disney would probably never hire a man to play a Disney Princess, but fiction exists for a reason. Many of the elements mentioned here are real though (such as the "I'm friends with..." or the claims about Tarzan and Jack Sparrow making women go crazy). You can read a bit more in articles such as [this](https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/23920264.html).
> 
> Working off-campus in the US when you are a non-resident is hard (if you want to work legally). Unless you're doing an internship and the job relates to your major, you wouldn't be able to work outside of your university. This is why I didn't choose a specific major for Victor, I didn't want to stray _too_ much from reality.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


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